Most people know of Gordon Ramsay! How could you not, the man is everywhere, not only with amazing restaurants all around the world but with his TV shows. Whether you're a Hell's Kitchen fan, a Restaurant Nightmare's fan, a fan of Masterchef, or any other of his many shows, you know that this man knows what he is talking about when it comes to food. What you may not know is that he has a Youtube Channel (or at least there is a channel dedicated to him).
This week we are sharing some of our favourite videos from Bon Appetit. Like the Epicurious video we shared last week, Bon Appetit has their Every Way series. And these are really informative and can be helpful. Some of the videos are a little silly, like Every Way to Cook a Tomato. I am not sure why you would need a special way to cook a tomato let alone 47 different ways but. . . to each their own.
One of my favourite though has to be Every Way to Cook a Pizza. I know most of these things you won't actually try or use but it is fun to see all the ways you can make a pizza if you ever get adventurous.
We are going back to Tutorial Thursdays. We used to do this when we first started the blog. This month they are going to be Tutorials that we found useful. And this is going to be all about food. This first post is about Epicurious on Youtube. Youtube is almost everyone's go to for tutorials and Epicurious has some great ones. Of note, they have a series that takes one thing and basically talks about how to do it. For example they have How to Frost Every Cake, or How to Crack Every Nut. These may not be the most useful in your day to day life but they are very educational should you want to try your hand at Cake Decorating or if you don't know how to crack some of your favourite nuts.
They do have other more useful ones like How to Open Every Shell Fish, How to Filet Every Fish, or How to Slice Every Fruit. These are great to know and they are nice for advance learners when it comes to cooking. If you want the freshes fish, especially shell fish, you need to know how to open them and care for them. So that is a great skill to know and it encourages home cookes to buy the freshest fish they can find.
But the reason I absolutely love this channel is because they have the basics too. I found thier videos really useful when I started cooking and especially when I started getting the HelloFresh boxes and seeing things I had never worked with or cooked before. My favourite is How to Chop Every Vegetable. And this will help you explore new produce and be able to get the most out of them and the video even suggests recipes to use them in.
As you can imagine, there are different ways to bind off (or cast off) when it comes to knitting. Everyone has their own preferred way of doing it. Like casting on, I believe that Binding off is affected by the type of project you are doing. It doesn't seem that there is a right or wrong way to do it in general. Again just depends on what project you are making and what effect you want. For example, if you are making a sleeve for a sweater and you want a loose cuff one way to bind off may work better than others.
This is the only video I could find from Yay for Yarn. So this is my go-to one. However, again you can find many videos on Youtube that may work better for you and your specific project.
Today we are moving on to the Purl Stitch. Almost everyone has heard "Knit one, Purl two". In fact that may be the only thing some people think of when they think of Knitting. Really a Knit Stitch and a Purl stitch are the two absolute basic stitches in knitting. All patterns are formed based on these two stitches. So again like the Knit Stitch, the Purl stitch can be done two different ways (English and Continental).
The only difference between a Knit Stitch and a Purl Stitch is the way you enter the stitch. A knit stitch comes in the front, a purl stitch comes in from the back.
I am sticking with Yay for Yarn for these tutorials. I find that if you respond to one person's teachings, you will thrive that way. She is simply the person I learned with so if you don't learn well with her that is understandable. There are many other people on Youtube with knitting tutorials and one of them may help you better.
Anyway, I have learned that there are two different ways to knit. One is called the English Style and another is called Continental Style. Personally, I find the Continental style much easier, while my Mom finds the English Style easier. Again, there is no right or wrong was that I know of or have heard, it is simply what is more comfortable for you. I think anyone who crochets will find the Continental Style easier, anyone starting out may find the English one easier. Either way, both are discussed in the video below.
Since I learned more about the Continental style, I am going to comment more on those. But keep in mind that they work around the same theory it is simply different viewpoints and motions. I personally hold my working yarn like I am crocheting. Then I let the needle in my dominant hand (right), do the work. I scoop up the working yarn and come back through the loop as if it was a crochet stitch.
Here is another video from Yay for Yarn that takes a more in-depth look at Continental Knitting.
Last year, my grandmother passed away (not due to COVID-19 virus). And she was an avid knitter. I had never been into knitting but it was something we shared. She had given me yarn before passing away and once she was gone my family decided to hand her yarn down to me. I was very grateful. To have this connection with her still was an amazing gift. Unfortunately, I didn't know a thing about knitting. And though I used some of this yarn to crochet. Some yarn just works better for one craft versus the other. So I decided to learn how to knit.
My grandmother already had a scarf started so I started working on that first. However, the tutorials I am going to share this month are going to go in order so you can start and finish a project. So the first step to knitting is casting on. Now depending on a certain pattern, you can do this in a number of different ways. I found one video that has a few different options and it can be handy to anyone who wants to try the different styles and see which fits. I recommend the video below. I watched this one also and tried to learn the way she did it. It didn't work that well for me but I could see it working for others.
The one I learned and found the easiest to pick up was called a Long Tail Cast on and that's the one I am going to talk about. There is no right or wrong way that I can tell. Again this may depend on the pattern. I also want to quickly mention that unlike crochet, knitting takes two hands, so it is very difficult for me to take photos to show how to do this cast on. I tried and they really didn't turn out great. So hopefully with my comments and the video will be enough to help anyone trying to learn.
To start the Long Tail Cast on, you want to make a slip knot (just like crochet), leaving a long tail on one end and the working yarn on the other. Once you have this you want to focus on your thumb and forefinger of your non-dominate hand. Hold the needle in your dominant hand (the one you right with or crochet with). You want to hold your fingers in a way that makes it look like you are showing someone the measurement of an inch.
You want to take these two fingers and go under the yarn and bring them to the needle. Then lift your fingers up so that the yarn forms a loop around your fingers. Finally, you will want to hold the ends of the working yarn and the tail in your remaining three fingers. (Note this is not how she shows in the video, it is just an alternative.)
Once you have this you want to start casting the stitches on. You notice four strands, two around the thumb and two around the finger. You want to take the needle and go under the first strand (on the outside of the thumb, and go over the next two strands, and pick up that strand. Once you have that you want to go back through the loop on your thumb and pull tight. You must repeat this per stitch.
